Anthropic Sued For Stealing Elvis Presley Music to Train AI: ‘Deeply Protective of These Iconic Songs’
Entities that control Elvis Presley’s music and other rights have sued Anthropic, accusing the AI company of using 274 of his songs without permission to train its models. The case adds one of music’s most famous artists to a growing legal fight over whether copyrighted works can be used to train AI.
The lawsuit names songs including “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, “Don’t Be Cruel” and “All Shook Up”, and alleges Anthropic used music at scale to create technology that produces unlicensed derivative works. AI companies argue that training is protected by copyright’s fair use defence, an issue still being contested in many cases; Anthropic had not commented when the article was published.
In short
- Elvis rights holders sue Anthropic over alleged AI training.
- The case cites 274 songs, including several famous hits.
- The dispute adds to unresolved copyright battles over AI.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The rights holders can argue that using hundreds of songs to train a commercial AI system, without permission or payment, takes value from creators and risks enabling unlicensed imitations. Requiring licences would respect artists’ and rights holders’ control over their work and help ensure they share in the benefits of AI built using it.
The case against
Anthropic and other AI developers can argue that training analyses works to learn patterns rather than simply republishing them, and that copyright’s fair use defence can permit such transformative uses. Requiring permission for every work used in training could make development costly or impractical, potentially limiting research and competition; the legal boundaries remain contested.
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